Rumor Has It
by commander in blue
Summary: -"while the other girls were born to fight, she just wants her name in lights." Rumors, facts, and truths; Tina Walters is not like she seems. Tina-centric. Oneshot.


**a/n: hey, guys. long time, no updates, eh? school is once again kicking my booty (which is unfortunately still in pain with the rest of my body from basketball and off-season track) but i had a sick day and the need to write came wooshing toward me. i like that word. wooshing. wooooosh. okay, moving on.**

**tina walters is awesome. the format of this doesn't make sense. but let's be philosophical for a moment: does anything really make sense?**

**it's sort of au. they're still spies, though.  
**

**disclaimer: i'm not ally-c, yo.**

* * *

Tina Walters spends her last night as a _real _Gallagher girl watching her fellow new graduates. People watching, gossiping, and false assurances: it's all what she does best.

---

_(rumor)_

Tina Walters is a party princess. She's the girl who dances like she has years of training, so graceful that the New York City Ballet Company begs for her to join every year. She's the girl in the best dress, of course. If one happened to ask her where she got her latest outfit, she'd just raise her eyebrows in mock surprise (because honestly, who _wouldn't_ be curious?) and drop a hint about having it flown in from Milan. She's the girl who oh so casually glides from boy to boy, occasionally stopping for a moment's conversation, but she's hardly ever too familiar.

She's the girl sparkling in the center of the dance floor; she's the girl who always leaves them wanting more.

_(fact)_

Tina Walters hates parties.

_(truth)_

Tina Walters is the girl who tries to do the cha-cha in Cultures and Assimilation without kicking her dance partner in the shin. She's the girl in the quirky, 1920s style vintage frock that she discovered from a thrift store during her summer vacation, praying _somebody _would comment on it. She's the girl who can barely have a conversation with a boy without interrogating him about past girlfriends or asking him to confirm a series of ridiculous gossip.

She's the girl standing by the wall at the last ball of her school year; she's the wallflower.

---

_(rumor)_

Tina Walters spends her summer jet-setting between her mom's—only _the _best gossip magazine writer—ultra chic loft in Manhattan and their summer home in Paris. When she's not in New York or France, she's off to some other exotic locale with her FBI agent father. Either way, she's always having an adventure.

_(fact)_

She wishes she could stay home for once. Her real home. If there was such a thing existing.

_(truth)_

Tina Walters _does _travel quite a bit. With all of the stamps in her passport, you might think she was a drifter. She may spend time in the Manhattan loft or a villa in Paris. But, as far as mother-daughter time goes, she'd be better off staying at the Gallagher Academy all summer. Sure, her mother occasionally stays home and divulges the latest between Brad and Angelina, but other than that, Tina sees her mom more on _E!_ than at their expensive vacation homes.

And her dad? Out of the picture. If she did happen to go with him to Johannesburg or Cairo, she stayed in the hotel. While her dad scouted for possible bomb threats in the US embassy, she lounged around the hotel pool and concocted a wild story to her friends of how she tracked down the culprit with only a toothbrush and a make-up compact.

Either way, she's alone.

---

_(rumor) _

Almost all of the girls in her year have been jealous of her at some point.

_(fact)_

Tina Walters has nothing to envy.

_(truth)_

Tina has been jealous of all the girls in her year at some point.

She'd never be as beautiful as Macey, with her sleek black hair that was pin straight naturally, bright blue eyes that screamed "_I'm better than you_", and haughty demeanor. She'd never be as brave as Bex, who was the first to step up to a challenge and the last to back down from a fight. She'd never be as smart as Liz, who could list up to seventy-thousand digits of pi without a second thought, hack even the most protective firewalls, and always know the right answer.

She'd never be as _extraordinary _as Cammie, who also thought she was nothing special. Cammie, if she didn't want to admit it or not, had brains, bravery, _and _looks. Most of all, she had confidence. Confidence in herself and what strengths she did have.

But, maybe, just maybe, Tina's starting to appreciate being _Tina_.

Because if Cammie Morgan can do it, she can too.

---

_(rumor)_

Tina Walters has had more boyfriends than she could count; various admirers who fled to her in each vacation spot.

_(fact)_

Tina Walters is far from being some sort of Aphrodite.

_(truth)_

Tina Walters has never had a boyfriend.

Sure, that's not _as _pathetic when you go to an all-girls school. But when nearly every girl you know (_including _Anna Fetterman) has had some sort of interaction with a boy, it's a bit of a problem. It's not that she's ugly, it's that the constant talk of rumors and gossip can be very off-putting to most boys.

And, when the Blackthorne boys arrived, she thought this was going to be her chance to be noticed. She started straightening her unruly frizzy hair, applied mascara with deadly precision, and even cut back on all the news from the grapevine. So when the boys in her grade found their dream girls in her peers, she put on a brave face and pretended it didn't bother her.

It would have never worked out with Jonas. They both could be blabbermouths, but he preferred to chat about science, not the latest hushed-up story about the CIA. It would have never worked with Grant. Their senses of humor (innuendo vs. laughing at the newest rumor about Mr. Mosckowitz and Madame Dabney) were completely different.

It _especially_ would have never worked out with Zach. Handsome and charming as he may be, the mysterious quips and enigmatic aura would have been a _major _buzz-kill to her nosy ways.

_It would have never worked_, she tells herself, and that puts a real smile on her face.

---

_(rumor)_

Tina Walters will most likely end up being the chief interrogator or propagandist for the CIA, FBI, or M-16.

_(fact)_

Tina Walters wants nothing to do with the spy world. She only attended the Gallagher Academy because her dad insisted that she do so to stay ahead of everyone else.

_(truth)_

Tina Walters would like to be a journalist. Not like her mom, but the kind that would write thought-provoking articles that every major news publisher would practically kill to place in their publication. The spy training was not for waste, though, she fully plans on using her covert skills to get information for each of her news pieces.

She wouldn't be _"Tina Walters, __gossip __girl"_, she'd be _"Tina Walters, truth-busting journalist __that takes no prisoners when it comes to writing the facts_." She's fighting with the pen, this time. She'd still be a rumor-monger, because it runs in the family, old habits die hard, and well, she wouldn't be Tina without it.

While the other girls were born for fight, she just wants her name in lights. And just the fact that she _won't _be a spy makes her different from her fellow sisters. For once, that amount of self-assurance in her decision makes her enviable, if only for a moment.

---

So, on her last _real_ night of being a Gallagher girl, she reverts back to her wallflower ways as she watches her classmates—girls she's known for most of her life—dance the night away in celebration of graduating.

Tina Walters is not a party princess, a family girl, a person to envy, a boy magnet, or a soon-to-be special operations agent.

Tina Walters is a gossip, a dreamer, a nomad, a person full of anxieties, boy repellent, and a soon-to-be journalist.

But, it's what she does best.

* * *

**asdffghjkl; there are probably loads of typos and sentences that don't make sense, aren't there?**

**but, it was okay to write. it feels nice to write again.**

**liked it? hated it? tell me about it!**

**-- asha (:**

**ps: ****i'm working on the next chapter of 'walking in glass slippers', i promise some good drama for you all ;D**


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